The Jump Conundrum
by iEvenstarEstel
Summary: The power of the anomalies remain a mystery, and Abby is about to suffer the consequences.
1. Chapter 1

The Jump Conundrum  
2012 Evenstar Estel

_The Beginning_

Abby kept pace with Connor as the pair carried the case with the anomaly locking mechanism down the steep slope of the forest hill. The fallen October leaves chunched beneath their boots as they followed the soldiers that had gone ahead of them to investigate for a creature incursion. The sight of an anomaly never seemed to diminish in its grandeur and even as the pair worked in tandem to set up the locking mechanism, they watched the swirling lights with as much fascination as the first time they'd seen one.

Abby broke from Connor with the dating calculator in hand, interested to see which era this one lead to. She took her readings and her brow furrowed. The date kept jumping between approximately thirteen thousand years ago and over forty million years in the past.

"Hey Conn," Abby called over her shoulder.

"Yeah, love?" he hollered back.

"Come look at this! I think it's like back at the prison when the satellite anomalies were opening and closing. I'm getting two dates."

"Hang on..." He stood up and brushed himself off and quickly jogged over to her, taking the device from her hands and stepping a few feet closer to the anomaly. "You're right. Bloody hell, the chance of it happening once was tiny! Happening a second time, the chances are incalculable!"

"Matt?" Abby spoke into her communications link. "We need another locking mechanism!"

The team moved swiftly, setting up the two locking mechanisms, but all work was halted when a creature about the size of a Aston Mini came lumbering through. It stayed at the edge of the anomaly as it looked around, making it's strange, bark like calls as it took in the people before it.

"Oh my god! It's a Glyptodont!" Connor exclaimed. The others looked at him, prompting him to explain. "Oh, um, ancestor of the armadillo, mostly harmless, and judging by its size, just a baby."

"That's a baby?" Becker sputtered.

"Nevermind, we've got to get it back through," Abby urged, taking a few steps closer to the creature. She waved her arms and pounded her feet to the ground in an attempt to spook it. Her actions worked and the Glyptodont jumped back and then turned and ran to where it had come from. Abby smiled and turned, then stalled in her tracks. There was the sound of something much larger, much angrier coming towards her. "Connor! Lock them! It's the mother!" Abby shouted. "Quickly!"

"You're too close!" Connor warned, his hand poised over the buttons.

Abby moved swiftly and as soon as Connor thought she was a safe distance away, he engaged them. He heard Abby's scream and echoed it with his own. There was some sort of energy surge as the anomalies separated and for a brief second Abby was enveloped by their light. Then, all receded and the two anomalies had separated and become small self contained spheres of light. Abby lay flat on her stomach on the ground, groaning and struggling to get up.

"Abby! Abby!" Connor shouted in a panic as he dove towards her. By the time he reached her, she'd rolled over on to her back. His hands flew over her body, checking for injuries.

"I'm okay, Connor," she assured him, taking hold of his biceps as he gently brought her to her feet. She had a scrape on her chin that was bleeding but was other wise unscathed. When Connor wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close, she knew she'd given him a fright. She cupped the back of his head and drew him near to kiss his jaw. "I'm okay, love."

They drew apart and he held her shoulders, looking into her eyes and breathing evenly to calm himself. "I'm so sorry! I had no idea that would happen!" he apologized.

Becker was there a moment later with the first aid kit and passed it to Connor, who led her to sit on one of the locking mechanism cases. He continued to mutter apologies as he cleaned the blood from her chin and applied a bandage. Abby sat still and let him tend to her, knowing it was something he needed. He was fiercely overprotective of her now that they'd become engaged. He knew full well that she was strong and independent as well as better in tense situations than what he was, but he took his role as her partner very seriously. They were set to marry over Christmas and both couldn't wait for the day to come.

"Could use a kiss," Abby whispered as he put away the alcohol swabs and bandages. Connor leaned in and gently pressed his lips to hers, lingering until Abby smiled and laughed. "Thanks, I'm good as new now."

"I _am_ sorry."

"Not your fault. Even after all this time, we still don't know everything about the anomalies, anything could still happen."

"So long as they don't happen to you, I can deal with it." He began picking the remnants of leaves out of her shirts and Abby pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"That's enough lazing about for us, time to get back to work. I bet that brain of yours is running a thousand different theories about why those anomalies happened in the same place again, as well as the energy surge."

Connor shook his head. "Was only thinking about you, actually."

"I give you permission to stop worrying. I was just knocked to the ground, I'm fine. Do all your thinking now and when we get home..." She arched her eyebrows at him suggestively and Connor grinned. With the promise of sex, there wasn't anything Abby couldn't convince her fiancé of doing. They rose together and got back to work, the little episode with the energy surge soon forgotten.

_Jump One_

She was roused from her fog by the sound of the lock on her bedroom door being twisted. Abby yawned and reached across the bed for Connor, only to find him missing. She sat up and quickly and scrambled for a light, finding a lamp on the bedside table. She received the shock of her life when the room she found herself in was not the one she shared with Connor in their London flat, but one from long, long ago. Trembling and in a very sudden, gripping panic, she rose from the bed and opened the armoire door to look at herself in the full length mirror. She looked over her body and saw a ghost. Her hair was long, down past her shoulders. The nightgown she wore was decorated with cartoon kittens, like she remembered. She was fifteen years old and back in Brighton in the house she shared with her mother, younger brother and her stepfather.

Abby gripped the wooden door of the armoire and tried to steady herself as her vision blurred and she wavered on her feet. She had little understanding of what was happening. It was supposed to be October and the year was meant to be two thousand and twelve. She and Connor were getting married in three months time. She worked for the ARC and that afternoon they'd encountered another set of anomalies opened on the same spot. It was rare and strange and they'd spent the afternoon studying them. She and Connor had gone home, eaten dinner and then they'd gone to bed early. Her last memory was of Connor's voice in her ear telling her he loved her and his hand sneaking up under her shirts to caress her stomach as a prelude to making love.

Her attention snapped back to the locked door of the bedroom as it was twisted again.

"Abigail, I can hear you, open the door," her stepfather's voice spoke from the other side as he continued to twist the doorknob in effort to gain entrance into her room. Abby's blood ran cold and the memories of her past she'd spent over a decade trying to ignore came rushing back to her in vivid, living colour. She remembered this night and all its horrors. Her mother had taken Jack to hospital because he'd fallen off his skateboard and snapped his wrist. Abby had disappeared to her bedroom, eager to put as much distance between her and the man that had come into their lives a year ago. Abby had tried not to be scared of him, but she couldn't help it. He drank too much, treated her mother like she was second class and bullied her and Jack. She always stood up to him when her mother couldn't. Abby hated how downtrodden and miserable her mother was, having only married the man in order to provide for her children. She'd been desperate and lonely. He gave them a place to live and food on the table, but he was no replacement for the lovely man who'd been her father and died in an traffic accident. In fact, Abby hated her stepfather and wished him dead on a daily basis.

With her mum and Jack gone for the next few hours, her stepfather had seized the opportunity to teach his insolent stepdaughter a lesson as well as fulfill the carnal desires for the teen he'd been harbouring all along. Abby loathed the man, but she'd never expected such things from him.

The old lock on her bedroom door finally gave and in he came. Abby steeled herself with fists clenched and on the defensive. Her body may not have the strength of her proper self, but she had the moves and the knowledge of martial arts she'd spent years honing. She wouldn't have to submit, she wouldn't have to live through the violent and the terrible destruction of her innocence. She was a woman, not a child and she had the will and the courage to defend herself.

As he advanced with a predatory gleam in his eyes, a sobering, earth shattering realization came to her mind. Too many times Connor had tried to help her understand the nature of time and how even the smallest change in the course of events could unravel the future, or worse, unravel reality like Cutter had done to Claudia Brown. By changing the events that were to transpire here and now, would her future be erased? Would she still end up at the Wellington Zoo? Would she still be called to the Forest of Dean to first find Rex and then meet Connor? Could she risk her future with the man she loved more than life?

Could she endure the next fifteen minutes for a second time if it meant in the end, she'd have Connor? She had a single second to decide her fate.

!*!*!

"You're so beautiful, Abby," Connor moaned, dragging kisses along the column of her throat and across her chest. Naked together in their bed, he caressed and kneaded her supple flesh, inhaling her scent and tasting her skin. "Love you... love you..."

One moment she'd been responding, touching him, stroking him and encouraging him and the next she was beating at him with her fists and screaming. He let go of her immediately and she rolled off the bed, landed hard on the floor and tangled herself in the bed sheets. She scurried back in the blind panic until her back hit the wall, dislodging one of the pictures from its hook and sending it crashing to the floor next to her.

He was there in front of her a second later, deep worry and concern on his face. "Abby, sweetheart? What's the matter!" he begged. Abby looked at him and his naked body and whimpered, then began to cry, begging him not to hurt her as she clutched the bed covers around her nude body. "Love, I'd never hurt you, you know that! Tell me what's wrong? Please!"

When he reached for her, she screamed again. Confused and scared, he backed away. He looked at the frightened woman before him and tried to figure out the suddenly crazed situation he found himself in. He traversed the bedroom and found his discarded boxers on the floor, pulling them on and then his jeans. He looked back at Abby and sighed. He turned on the overhead lights and extinguished the candles on the dresser. He sat himself down opposite her, the expanse of the bedroom between them.

"Abby..." he began.

"How do you know my name?" she cried. "I want my mum!"

"Your mum? Abbs, she'd been gone for... wait... what do you mean, how do I know your name?"

"I want to go home! Please!"

"Sweetheart, you are home. Look at me, it's Connor. Your Connor."

She shook her head. "I don't know you!"

His brow furrowed. What on Earth was happening? "You know you're Abby, don't you? Abby Maitland?" She nodded her head. "I'm Connor, Connor Temple, your fiancé." Her eyes went as wide as a full moon. "You don't know me?"

"No..."

"Tell me what's the last thing you do remember."

"Mum took Jack to hospital cause he'd broken his arm. I just wanted to get away from my stepdad, so I went up to my room... that's it."

"Your stepdad? Abby, he's been dead for eight years now. He died in prison. You can't have forgotten that..."

Confused and scared, she began to cry all the more. Equally at a loss, Connor did what came naturally and he crawled over to her and pulled her into his arms to comfort her. She fought him at first, but when he whispered that she was safe, that he'd not harm her in any way, she relented and cleaved to him as she sobbed for her mum. He wrapped her up in the duvet and held her as she wept, wracking his brain trying to come up with an explanation as to why his future wife had seemed to have forgotten the last twelve years of her life.

_Jump Two_

Her mind was foggy and she moved stiffly. Her entire body trembled and she felt sick to her stomach. As she felt the walls closing in and her legs give out, she was caught and supported in a pair of strong, familiar arms.

"Abby, love?" Connor implored, holding her limp body up as she struggled to find her footing. She managed to focus and when she looked into his eyes and saw the pure, brilliant love he had for her, she was consumed by it and began to cry.

"Oh Connor!" she cried, throwing her arms around him and holding on for dear life. The relief she felt at being reunited with him was indescribable. She breathed him in and wept against his neck, clutching fiercely to every part of him.

"Tell me what's wrong!" he begged, ushering her towards the couch in the living room. Seconds ago she'd been in her childhood bedroom and now she was back with him. He helped her to the couch and it was then that she realized there was something else amiss. As he eased her down she suddenly became very aware of the movement of tiny bones within her and her well expanded belly. She gasped and put her hands over her stomach. The sensations were absolutely alien and yet at the same time, there was something comforting about them. Connor's hands came to rest over hers and he looked absolutely terrified. "Is it the baby? What hurts? Do you need to go to hospital?"

She shook her head and closed her eyes, breathing in and out, trying to reconcile the fact that she'd once again jumped into her own body, but this time at a point in her future - a future where she was pregnant with Connor's baby.

"I'm okay. Just... give me a minute."

She opened her eyes and looked around. She recognized their flat, but the decor was altered from how she remembered it. The walls were a different colour so far as she could tell in the near darkness. She looked to the window and saw stars in the sky.

"Abby, you're scaring me!" Connor implored. She looked him over and frowned. He wore a wedding band on his finger and she looked to her own, seeing a matching one on hers.

"We're married?" she asked before realizing she'd spoken allowed.

"Abby?"

"And I'm pregnant. How far along?"

"About six months. Abby you need to tell me what's happening here! We were going to bed and you fainted in me arms!"

She reached for him and enveloped him in a hug. "Hold me? Just for a few minutes? Please, Connor?"

He didn't say anything, but did as she asked and kept her in the circle of his arms. Abby buried her face in at his chest and took comfort in his presence. She calmed and concentrated on being safe, protected and with the man she loved. There was a strange solace in feeling the child moving within her body. The Abby whose body she'd taken over had experienced sixth months to get used to having someone share her body. She'd have felt the first flutters of the new life, and seen the changes come on slowly. She however had been thrust into it and would have to get used to it, at least until she moved on. She had to talk it over with Connor, but she couldn't quite tear herself away from the sanctuary of his embrace. The baby stretched inside her and Abby paused to appreciate the moment. She and Connor had talked about having children shortly after becoming engaged. It made her happy to think that it had happened. Of course, her reality was that she was jumping around in time, in and out of her own body, along different points of her life.

"Connor?" she spoke suddenly. "Is it true that if you change one part of your past, that it can unravel everything that was meant to come after it?" They drew apart and he looked upon her with deep concern.

He nodded his head. "That's the theory. The Butterfly Effect. A butterfly flaps its wings and the movement of the air eventually becomes a hurricane on the other side of the world. But what if that butterfly's eaten by a bird? That hurricane can never be started and everything changes."

"That's what I thought. Thanks, Conn."

"Tell me what's happening, Abby. I can tell something's wrong."

She shook her head and then cuddled back against him. She brought his hand to her belly and let him feel the ripples of movement beneath. "Just hold me for a little longer, please."

!*!*!

The scream was so shrill and loud, that it echoed through the entirety of the ARC. Connor immediately recognized it as Abby's. His tools clattered to the floor in his lab and he was off like a shot towards the menagerie. The others followed suit and were guided by Abby's panicked wails. They found her crawling on her hands and knees clutching her stomach and in hysterics. When Connor crashed to his knees in front of her she grabbed for his shirts, sobbing uncontrollably.

"The baby, Connor! The baby!" she cried, holding her stomach again.

"Baby?" Connor gasped, confused. Abby was pregnant?

"I felt him not a minute ago and then he was gone! Connor, our baby's gone!" Oh god! Had she had a miscarriage and he'd not even known he was going to be a father? He couldn't control the tears that sprang to his eyes. He forgot about Matt, Jess, Becker, Emily and even Lester who surrounded them.

"Why... why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?" he choked out. The loss he felt was consuming him, as was Abby's unfettered grief. This was by far the single most horrible moment of his life. "I'm... I'm so sorry, Abby. Oh Abby..."

She pushed him away and fell back against the wall. Her eyes darted around at their friends, her surroundings and her stomach. "I... I was sixth months pregnant... we were in our flat."

"What? Abby, I don't understand."

"This... this isn't my body." She looked to him and her face screwed up in confusion.

"Abby, what do you mean?"

"Connor, something's seriously wrong." She held up his hand. His wedding ring wasn't there. "We were in our flat, we were married and having a little boy and then I was here. I'm not in my proper body. Oh god, it's horrible, Connor, not feeling him inside me... I want him back! I need him back!" She wrapped her arms around her stomach and began to rock herself. Connor dismissed the others and molded himself to Abby's side, drawing her into the cocoon of his embrace.

"Start at the beginning, tell me everything you know," he bade.

"I don't know anything! We were at home, we were on our way to bed and then I was here and I realized the baby wasn't moving and then that he wasn't there at all and then I screamed. What's happened, Connor? What's happened to me?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_Jump Three_

"Connor?" Abby groaned, trying in vain to sit herself up. She felt too warm and her bones ached. "Connor?" she croaked, barely able to move her limbs.

"Hush, mum, it's alright," a dulcet female voice spoke, giving her shoulder an affectionate rub. Abby squinted against the light and shifted again, realizing she was laying on a bed.

"Where's... where's Connor?" Her chest felt tight and it was difficult to force the words past her throat. "I need him..."

"We've just been telling her he's popped out to get chips or something like that," another female voice spoke from somewhere in the room. "It's easier on 'em that way, lovey. Telling 'em their husband's passed only makes them grieve all over again. She'll forget she's asked after him in a few minutes anyways. How long's he been gone, your dad?"

"Oh, about four years now. It was shortly after that the dementia set in. They had over fifty years together and never stopped loving each other. Dad asked me to make sure I took care of her, but I'm not sure I've done me best. I don't like having her in here, but I just couldn't cope having her at home any longer."

"Don't think that, dear. It's never easy, but you made the best decision for her. She's well tended to here, never wants for a thing, save your dad."

Abby looked between the two women, one looked to be in her fifties or possibly her sixties and resembled the photographs she'd seen of Connor's mother. She was sat on the bed next to her and talking to a woman about the same age, with a shock of orange hair and too much make-up, but her eyes were kind.

"Thanks, that's good of you to say. I just hope Nicholas gets here in time."

"That's your brother, right? He doesn't come as often as you, but he was here last month, spent the whole day with her."

"They were always close. He took after her more than dad. I was always tinkering with computers and gadgets, but Nick loves nature, just like mum did. This is so hard. I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be gone yet. I know I don't visit as often as I should, but it's so easy to think of her just tucked away in this little room, quiet, safe and content." The dark haired woman began to weep and Abby reached for her to comfort her. It was then that she noticed the appearance of her own hand. It was shriveled with translucent skin stretched over bulbous knuckles. Blue veins stood out prominently as did dark spots. She was old, very old. Abby began to tremble. She was in her own body, but this one was at the end of her life. Moments before she'd been young and about to bring forth a new life, and now here she was on what she could only assume was her death bed.

Her hand landed on the forearm of the woman who she could only assume was her daughter. "What's your name?" Abby asked, barely recognizing the sound of her own voice, so diminished with age and whatever frailties her elderly state had brought upon her.

"It's me mum, it's Sarah."

"Sarah... that's beautiful, you're beautiful. You look like your father. Listen, Sarah, I need your help. Is there anyone still around from the ARC? Becker? Jess? Matt? Emily? Anyone?"

Sarah immediately looked to the other woman, asking if she could be left alone with her mother. Once the caregiver had left, Sarah turned back to Abby, taking her hands in her own. "Mum?"

"I'm not your mother... no, that's not right. I _am_ your mother, Sarah, but not the one you've been coming to visit. Something's been happening to me. We were at an anomaly, in October of two thousand and twelve. Two anomalies had opened on the same spot, and Connor managed to separate them and lock them, but there was this energy surge and for a moment it consumed me. I thought everything was fine, we both did, but then I found myself in my own body, but years before, then another, and now I'm here. I'm jumping around to different points in time..." Abby paused to take a much needed breath, feeling a weakness come over her and she suddenly felt quite drained.

"Mum? I... "

"Please believe me... can you find Becker?"

"I... okay. I can get him. He doesn't live too far, I can ask his son to bring him. I believe you. I saw too much when I was young not to. Dad taught me so much about the anomalies... we'll figure it out."

"Thank you... thank you..." Abby took one last shuddering breath and then she felt the darkness creep in around her. She cursed the lack of time and the frailty of her body. She vaguely heard Sarah calling for her to open her eyes, to wake up, but Abby was fading and she knew it. She might've been able to figure things out if she'd only had more time, but this body was dying and Abby was terrified that whatever it was that made her Abby Maitland, if it was her mind or her soul, would go into the darkness too when this body stopped working.

!*!*!

"Abbs? 'Lo in there," Connor chuckled, waving his hand in front of her face. "Sweetheart?"

He watched as Abby continued to stare blankly ahead. The rest of their friends started to notice too and the conversation at their table in the pub died down. Connor grew increasingly concerned. He touched the side of her face and turned her towards him. "Abby, love? Are you okay?"

Her eyes cleared and she blinked, then stared at him. "Connor..." she gasped and instantly her eyes filled with tears. With shaking hands she reached for his face, touching every facet of him as if trying to commit him to memory. "You're so handsome."

Connor frowned. Abby was behaving very strangely. Becker and Jess, and Matt and Emily all looked upon her with deep concern. "Excuse us, for a bit, yeah?" Connor slid out of the booth and took Abby's hand, leading her outside into the cool night air. He led her down the block a ways, before stopping under a street lamp. She looked up at the stars and reached out to them with her hand, then pulled it away with a whimper.

"Where are the children?" she asked pitifully. "I haven't seen them in so long."

"Abby, Nick and Sarah are at home with the sitter."

"You left me, when you promised you'd never leave my side." She brought her hand to her face and wiped away her tears.

"You're starting to scare me. I've never left you, never. Whatever's made you think that I have?"

She ignored him and started to wander, he followed after her. She continued to say utter nonsense, speaking about things that had never happened. It was when she mentioned their grandchildren that it dawned on him. He quickly moved himself in front of her, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes. "This has happened before, I remember. Once before we were married and again when you were pregnant with Nick. You're not my Abby, I mean, you are, but from sometime in our future."

"I'm tired. I'm always so tired," she spoke, virtually ignoring him. Connor was beginning to realize that this Abby wasn't right in her mind. He surmised that she must've been towards the end of her life. His heart broke thinking that if the Abbys had switched that his own was trapped inside the body of an old woman and guessing by the words this one had spoken, he wasn't alive and there to comfort her. He enveloped her in a hug and she melted into him, at least familiar with his touch and accepting of it.

"I've tried before... but I could never suss it out. I'll figure this out this time, love. I'll set it to right. Somehow. I promise. I love you."

_Jump Four_

It was beginning to get less jarring as she switched from body to body. She recognized the strange rush of sensation that washed over her and the shuddering jolt of coming back to herself and having new surroundings. This time she was sat in an office by herself. In her lap was a clipboard, in her hand was a pen and before her was a questionnaire. The office belonged to the director of the Wellington Zoo and Abby remembered being here before. It was a Friday and on Monday she would be starting her new job, but they'd needed her to come in and fill out various forms for insurance purposes. Abby set the pen and clipboard aside and buried her face in her hands. She was overwrought and clinging to the last threads of her sanity. She couldn't endure this any longer or she was sure she'd lose her mind entirely.

She'd felt the body of her elderly self slipping into death. She'd felt what it was like to have her's and Connor's baby move within her body. She'd also been taken back to the worst night of her life. She couldn't continue. She wasn't in any place long enough to really have a chance to figure things out, nor talk with Connor. She had confidence enough in him to believe he could figure it out given time, but the problem was, she hadn't the time. She inhaled deeply. She'd endure. She had to. She had fought tooth and nail to be secure enough in herself to be able to give Connor the love he deserved. She wasn't about to lose it or the deep, loving and abiding relationship they shared. They'd been through hell together more than once and come out stronger for it each time. This would be no different.

She gathered her thoughts and left the office, heading straight for her car. She drove as fast as possible to the University. She ran across campus to the administration office and breathlessly asked a litany of questions in an effort to find out where Connor Temple might be. Her best chance was in the wing where the Natural History classes were in session. She paced the hallway, wringing her hands. More than once she looked through the tiny window of the door to the lecture hall and futilely scanned the darkness for Connor. She did a double take at the sight of Stephen delivering Cutter's lecture, but she only had time for Connor. She had no idea what she was going to say to him, or what he could do for her at this point in time, but she had to try. She had to see him.

When class let out, she was overwhelmed by hundreds of students breaking over her like a tidal wave. She was lost in the crush, and given her lack of height she couldn't see past anyone to look for Connor. As the crowd thinned out, she knew she'd missed him. Dejected and shattered she left the building, hugging her arms around herself. She didn't know how much longer she'd have here and to know that Connor was somewhere close but that she couldn't find him was heartbreaking.

Abby stopped dead in her tracks when she heard the distinct laughter she knew and loved. She spun around and saw him, just as he'd been when she'd first met him with a fedora atop his head and oversized charity shop clothes hanging over his slight frame. He was with Duncan and Tom and the trio were oblivious to her stare. She snapped out of her inertia and called his name. He looked in her direction and she smiled at him with a wave. Immediately a look of confusion fell over his face and Abby knew he must be wondering why a girl like her was calling to him. Her smile broadened and she rushed towards him. She didn't want to scare him, but she couldn't help herself as she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. She didn't care that he had no clue who she was or who'd she'd become to him, she loved him now as much as ever.

When she pulled back, she couldn't help but laugh at the shocked expressions of the three boys.

"Um... can I have me arms back?" Connor asked, his voice wavering from nerves.

"Sure," Abby replied, snaking her arms around his waist instead.

"I think you have the wrong bloke... ?"

"Abby, Abby Maitland. You have the most beautiful, dark eyes, you know that?" Connor blushed ten shades of red and Abby beamed at him. "I know you don't know me, it's okay, because I know you. I know everything about you. Your middle name is Andrew after your father's best mate. You love Doctor Who and classic Battlestar Galatica, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer's your favourite. When you were seven you went to a sheep shearing farm with your class, but you separated from the group and got lost. You were crying and looking for your mum, tripped, landed funny and broke your arm. All the kids laughed at you, but your mum got you fish n' chips for dinner that night and two Walnut Whips to make you feel better."

Connor gaped. Very few people knew that story. It wasn't exactly something he shared with people. He cast a furtive glance to the equally as surprised Duncan and Tom who were looking on with both amusement and horror at the tiny and beautiful blond wrapped around their friend. Connor, despite being completely confused and embarrassed, ushered himself and Abby away from his friends and under a tree on the nearby green.

"Scared you a bit, haven't I?" Abby asked, reaching up to lay her palm to his face. "It's okay, I expected it. We're not supposed to meet for another year, but when we do it's going to bind us together for the rest of our lives. We're going to go through hell together, but in the end, it'll all be worth it. We're going to be lovers..." As soon as the words left her mouth, Connor sputtered and nearly began to hyperventilate. Abby responded by kissing him, passionately. She had to keep hold of him to prevent him from fainting dead away. He responded to her kiss almost instantly, but despite his natural instincts, it was a rather awkward. After a few minutes she pulled away and put her lips to his ear. "I know how you like to be touched, Connor, and that the most sensitive part of your body is behind your left knee. I know every inch of your body." He groaned audibly and she felt his growing erection pressing into her stomach. "Open your eyes." He did as she bade and she looked deep into his eyes. "Connor, you've always wanted something strange and exciting to happen to you, it has, it will and I'm part of it. You're a brilliant man and I love you very much. I'm in trouble Connor. Something happens in our future and I need you to help me set it to right, otherwise we could lose what we have."

Connor was listening, but she still saw doubt in his eyes. She sighed and then it occurred to her, the one thing she could say that would convince him to listen. She slipped the tip of her index finger through the golden band that hung from the leather cord on his neck.

"This is your father's wedding ring," she spoke. "You've worn it since your father died when you were thirteen. You were the only one with him when he passed and the last thing he did before the cancer took him was to take this ring off his finger and give it to you. He told you he wanted you to have it to remember him by and that you were to keep it safe until you found the woman you wanted to marry. You actually gave it to me when we got engaged, but it's too big for my finger so you've got it back round your neck. No one knows this except you and me. You told me this after the first time we made love. Have I convinced you? I know it's insane, but please, please, put aside your doubts and help me. I love you, Connor. You're all I have."

"I... I... okay."

Abby cried out with joy and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him with all her might. There was hope yet.

!*!*!

"This is insane. This is straight out of science fiction and I hate science fiction!" Abby groused. Connor pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. He'd showed her family albums, told her things about herself that only she'd know, but she still doubted that she was his wife and the mother of their two children. All this strange leaping along her own timeline confused him as much as her. Memories would suddenly flood his mind, new ones from his past about encountering her different selves. He could only assume that it meant she'd jumped into another time in her past and encountered him, thus adding to his own memories. Time was being bent and altered around him. He'd tried his best to assimilate things, but it was messing with his mind. He also didn't understand that when his own Abby returned to him, she had no memory of having been gone. Recovering from the knowledge of having missed hours of her life took a lot of work for both of them to get over. Of course having these other Abbys to deal with, especially ones that didn't know him, was proving frustrating and difficult. He loved her no matter what, but he wished he had some answers.

This time they'd been at home. In fact he'd been half naked and laying on his stomach on their bed with her straddling his waist and massaging his back. They'd snuck home from the ARC on their lunch break for a little midday tryst. It was something they did often. After nearly a decade of marriage and two children, they could honestly say they were more in love than they'd ever been. Had it not been for the family pictures on the wall and this Abby being mature enough not to freak out on him, he was sure she'd have either kicked him in the head or called the police..

After a few minutes of confusion and chaos they were now at the kitchen table with cups of tea. He'd given her a mirror to look at so she could see that she'd aged. He could tell she wanted to believe him, but it was like helping someone with amnesia. This wasn't her life, at least not yet. There was one thing that he knew he could tell her to convince her, but he'd wanted her to save her the pain of the memory. From his experience, she'd only be in this body a few hours and if they could wait it out together that would be best. However, they'd have to fetch the children from school eventually and he didn't want them upset by their mother denying them.

"Abby, if it's any consolation, any help, you're safe with me. I know this _you_, you're scared even if you've put on a brave face," Connor said. "The other times this happened were quite a bit more upsetting for us both. I want you to trust me, but I know you can't, at least not yet. It took me years to earn your love and your trust. You have a lot of walls up around you and that's completely understandable. I know about your past with your stepfather and I'm sorry for how that must make you feel. I can prove myself to you any way you like. I just ask that you give me a chance. I need to find out what's happening to you so I can set it to right and put the timeline back in order. Will you help me? If not for yourself, at least for our... my... the children? Nick and Sarah need their mum."

Abby was quiet for a while, looking around their flat, her eyes falling back to the open photo album and the pictures of her holding one child whilst pregnant with another. This other Abby had a happy life, it seemed, with a handsome, loving husband and a safe home. It was something she'd always wanted, but had never allowed herself to even hope for. There was a kindness and sweetness to this man named Connor that she did find attractive. He looked at her pleadingly and she found that she couldn't say no to him. She'd always been able to tell men no, to push them away, but this one had something about him, something that told her maybe he was speaking the truth.

"Okay, Connor. What do you need?"

_Return to Coda_

There was a knowledge of _something_ scratching at the back of his mind, a hint of intuition, a compulsion. He had to follow it through, knowing if he didn't he'd regret it. He looked at the two locked anomalies, and then to Abby, who stood several feet away speaking with Matt and Emily. She'd been complaining of a terrible headache, but was determined to work through it. He looked back and forth between his fiancée and the anomalies and inside his mind, pieces started to fit together like a puzzle. He didn't know why he had to do what his instincts were telling him to, he just knew he had to. He crossed the distance to where Abby stood, and slipped his hand around hers. She turned to him and smiled.

"Hey, Conn," she spoke. "What's up?"

"Abby, do you trust me?" he asked, his tone more serious than she'd ever known it to be.

Abby exchanged looks with Emily and Matt. She tightened her hand around her husband-to-be's. "Connor, that's a perfectly stupid question. Of course I trust you. I trust you with my life."

"Then, come with me, yeah?" He led her back to the locked anomalies and positioned her between them

"Connor, what are you doing?"

"I'm not sure Abby, but please trust me, like I asked. Just stand there for a moment."

"Okay."

With a grateful nod, he rushed to gather Matt, Becker and the soldiers. He instructed Emily that she was to pull Abby away from the anomalies as soon as he told her to and as quickly as possible. He instructed Becker and the others to have their EMDs at the ready should any creatures attempt to come through. He was going to open the anomalies. Abby stood inert and nervous, but she trusted Connor and knew he'd never do anything to her or put her in any danger that wasn't necessary. They shared a longing look between them and then, he unlocked the anomalies.

There was a huge surge of light and energy and for a moment, Abby was enveloped. She cried out and as soon as the two anomalies were one again, Connor ordered Emily to get her out of the way immediately. As Emily half dragged Abby to safety, the firing of multiple EMDs filled the area as the mother Glyptodont attempted to cross the threshold into their world. Abby collapsed at Connor's side a safe distance away with Emily keeping hold of her and checking over her for signs of injury. The Glyptodont was successfully pushed back through to the other side and once again Connor engaged the locking mechanisms, separating the anomalies. He scrambled over to Abby just as Emily was getting her back on her feet.

"Abby?" Connor asked, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes as they gained focus. She saw him and immediately threw her arms around him.

"You did it, Connor! You did it! Thank you!" she cried, crushing him to her. Connor hugged her back. That gnawing feeling at the back of his mind was gone.

"Fantastic, Abbs. But, love, what did I do?"

She cupped his face between her hands and stared at him. He was her hero and she loved him beyond anything she could ever hope to articulate. "It's a long story, but first - I love you."

"I love you too. Abby, I'm confused." The look on his face was typically Connor and completely adorable. She'd explain it all to him, but even though she was whole again, she was incredibly tired after her long journey through time and all she'd experienced. For now, she just wanted to savour the comfort of being in Connor's arms.

_Home Again_

Abby decided there was no better feeling at the moment than being snuggled up to Connor under the duvet in front of the fire in the hearth of their living room. As soon as they'd come home she'd gone for a shower, needing the cleansing ritual and a few moments to gather herself. She'd seen Connor come and go as she'd washed and when she'd finished, she was pleased to see he'd brought her pajamas to dress in. He seemed to always knows exactly what she needed, which was affirmed when she made her way to the living room and found him dressed in sweat pants and a tshirt with a mug of hot cocoa waiting for her.

They settled together on the couch and Abby told her tale, from waking up in her fifteen year old body to the final jump when she found his younger self at the University and implored him to help her figure it out. By the end of her story, both were mentally exhausted. They shared tears and kisses and held on to each other.

"I felt it, like an echo of a memory - your words," Connor said after a long stretch of silence. "I didn't know why I had to join the anomalies up again, but I just knew I had to do it. I have no memory of us meeting before the Forest of Dean. I don't know if you were in a divergent timeline or if this one was just thrown out of whack, but I did know I had to join the anomalies again and repeat what happened to you, so obviously there was a connection. Whatever the anomalies did, if they split you in two or what, it took a part of you away from me and I didn't even know it. That scares the life out of me. Trying to figure out timelines, alternate dimensions, the things like Claudia Brown, it does me head in most of the time. I think we've set time back on course, though. I don't think you'll jump again."

"Well, you're better at it than me. You'll figure it out one day. All I know is, it was horrible... most of the time. Finding out we have babies one day wasn't so bad." She looked up at Connor with a little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. He grinned back at her, so much so that she saw the dimple in his left cheek she loved. She reached up and caressed the side of his face. He leaned into it and closed his eyes, the pleasure of her touch evident. "Soon, right after we're married if you like."

"What would you like?"

"Right now? Sleep. I feel like I haven't slept in ages. And for you to hold me."

"That I can do."

"Thank you for bringing me home, Connor." She closed the distance between their lips and brought him to her for a lingering, soulful kiss, pouring into it all the love she felt for him. She parted from him slowly, savouring his warmth and closeness, then snuggled down and laid her head in his lap. She curled herself into a ball and he tucked the duvet around her. Lulled by his fingers stroking her hair and cheek, Abby fell under, holding fast to the knowledge that when she next woke she'd be her right self, in her right body, in the right time and with Connor by her side.

The End


End file.
